S.F. Fed Frees Silicon Valley Bancshares Of Consent Order After

Silicon Valley Bancshares of Santa Clara, Calif., said the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco had removed a three-year-old regulatory consent order.

The company, which owns Silicon Valley Bank, said it is still under a California State Banking Department consent order.

Silicon Valley Bank focuses on fast-growing new and midsize technology companies. It ventured heavily into commercial real estate in the late 1980s, however, and suffered from declining land values in the early 1990s.

It has since shed many nonperforming assets and opened offices in several high-tech areas, including Wellesley, Mass.; Rockville, Md.; and Beaverton, Ore.

The $1 billion-asset company reported 1995 net income of more than $18 million - not bad for an institution that had lost more than $2 million just three years earlier.

John C. Dean, president and chief executive, announced the Fed's action March 28. It is "the result of some extremely hard work and diligence on the part of our staff, management, and the board," he said. "We believe that the necessary infrastructure is in place to continue the performance we have achieved over the past two years."

The bank received regulatory approval in November to begin making venture-capital partnership investments.